“This is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and the one you have sent — Jesus Christ.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

The Scriptures are like a gem mine of endless supply. The more you plumb, the more you find. And sometimes, the discoveries you make will surprise you. They will come at times you least expect. They will turn up in places you thought for sure you had completely exhausted because you had mined there so many times. None of this should be surprising in the least. It is, after all, God’s word. The writer of Hebrews identifies it as living and active. God’s Spirit is present in it, and He is the source of all wisdom. Where and how He chooses to reveal it is up to Him. I was reminded of this again last night while reading a new old book. Allow me to share what I am learning.

The book I’m reading is Knowing God by J.I. Packer. And if you’re of a certain theological persuasion and are in disbelief that I haven’t read it yet, I understand. I can’t believe I haven’t read it yet either. It’s generally heralded as a modern spiritual classic to be placed alongside the greatest works of C.S. Lewis. I’ve heard not a few people I respect say that it is one of, if not the most spiritual and personally impactful books they’ve ever read. But I’ve just never picked up a copy for myself. I only have it now because my uncle sent me a copy. His incredibly thoughtful gesture was a gift that I suspect will keep giving for yet many years.

In any event, beyond being able to confidently say that the book is about knowing God, which I know because the title tells me so, I really can’t say much of anything about it yet. I only really started reading it yesterday. I’ve barely gotten through the appetizer offerings so far. And it is a book to be read slowly and digested carefully. I intend to do that.

But one thing did stand out to me as I was reading last night. Knowing God—really knowing Him and not merely knowing things about Him—is the most important thing a person can know. It is the fount from which all other knowledge properly flows. A person who knows God is able to know a vast ocean of things to which the person who does not know God simply does not have access. That’s not a statement of judgment or arrogance or belittlement. It’s merely an observation of reality.

Because God is the source of all knowledge (which He is because He is the creator of all things), without knowing Him, while we might come to know a great deal about many things, we won’t actually know any of them. If we genuinely desire to know anything, knowing Him should be our greatest and highest priority.

Perhaps an example will help. My undergraduate degree is in chemistry. I did really well in pursuing it from an academic standpoint. I had the highest GPA in the program my senior year. I was given the Outstanding Chemistry Student Award at our graduation awards ceremony. I was even among the group of valedictorians in my graduating class. (Because a 4.0 was the highest GPA you could get, they awarded the distinction of valedictorian to everyone who achieved it.)

I’ve forgotten more chemistry concepts than most people ever know in the first place. But I have forgotten it. My oldest will be taking chemistry next year. Absent a lot of review, I doubt I will be able to be very much help to him. And again, I literally have a degree in the stuff. This isn’t the fault of my professors. They were all excellent. I had great relationships with practically all of them. The fault is mine. I may have learned a lot about chemistry in pursuit of my degree, but I never really learned chemistry. Not as so many of my classmates did who went on to pursue it as their career. As much as I enjoyed learning about chemistry, I never really loved chemistry the way most of them did. It was a wash of information that stayed in my brain as long as I needed it, but which never made it from head to heart. I understand now that God was preparing me for something else. And indeed, as soon as I didn’t need it anymore, away it started to flow in favor of other things.

So often, our knowledge of God is like that. We know all kinds of things about Him. We read and study the Scriptures. We can define and use conversationally all the big, impressive-sounding theology words like supralapsarianism (a word that labels a particular theological position concerning God’s decree of salvation and its relation to the Fall). We can talk doctrine and spell out the major views on all of the big theological controversies as well as the minor ones. We eat, sleep, and breathe apologetics and can make incredibly well-reasoned arguments for the faith and against other worldview positions. But the jumble of knowledge that fills our brains never penetrates to our hearts. More significantly, it never leads us to love God more fully and to keep His commands more faithfully. In such a situation, it is not accurate to say that we know God at all. We just know a lot about Him. Knowledge about and knowledge of are two very different things.

This is significant for a number of reasons, but what Jesus says here at the beginning of what is often called His “high priestly prayer” gives us a very important one. People who don’t know God don’t have eternal life. Now, I know that statement comes with a bit of sticker shock but I didn’t say it first. Jesus did. Jesus opens His great prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane by asking His Father to glorify Him as His final hours arrived so that He could in turn glorify His Father. Jesus wants this to happen so that He could give eternal life to “everyone you have given [me].” Right in the middle of this grand request, Jesus pauses to define eternal life. “This is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and the one you have sent – Jesus Christ.”

Let me state it again: eternal life is knowing God. If that doesn’t give you reason enough to want to know God, I’m not sure what will. But how can this be? It’s really fairly simple. And if it’s a secret, it’s not a terribly well-hidden secret in the Scriptures. We are often taught that eternal life comes as a gift of grace in response to our putting our faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior. And that’s true. No question there. But what does it mean to put our faith in Jesus as Lord? It means we align our lives to His commands and commit to living our lives His way instead of ours. A person will only do this, though, when they accept the knowledge of who Jesus is which comes when we accept the truthfulness and reality of the Scriptures. Well, when we know Jesus, Jesus Himself said that we will know God. To know the one is to know the other.

Let’s approach this another way. Eternal life comes from a relationship with God. Well, a relationship happens when we come to know someone. If you don’t know God, you aren’t going to be in a relationship with Him. You might know a lot about Him, but knowing about and having a relationship with aren’t the same thing. As Jesus’ brother James observed, “You believe that God is one. Good! Even the demons believe – and they shudder.” Demons just encountered during His ministry always recognized Him immediately. They knew exactly who He was and were terrified of Him. But when we actually come to know God, eternal life is the result. Eternal life is found in knowing God.

The application here is fairly obvious. Do you know God? Do you really know God? Is your knowledge merely facts and figures, or have you come to actually know who He is? Do you love merely the idea of God and the things an embrace of that idea can bring to your life, or do you love Him purely for who He is? Is your obedience conditioned solely on the things He can do for you, or is keeping His commands the overriding joy and passion of your life? Is He merely your God, or in Christ, has He become your closest friend? Do you know God?

You’ve perhaps met people before who know God. They’re different from the average Christian you meet. There’s a greater joyfulness and hopefulness to them that most people don’t seem to have. There’s an excitement about God that is contagious but never pushy or irritating. They talk about Him often, not in theological terms, but in deeply personal ones. They are able to look at the things in their lives with a kind of holy disinterest. They care deeply about them, but they are all secondary to their primary and overriding chief concern: knowing God. These kinds of people are typically magnetic. They are lights in their communities. They make their communities better by serving and loving like Jesus. They are kind and generous, not to a fault, but to a blessing. They are the kind of people I want to be more like. If you consider yourself a follower of Jesus, I suspect you do too. The way to do that is to know God more.

Take some time this weekend and reflect on your own knowledge of God. Do you know Him? Really? How can you come to know Him more? Whatever efforts you put toward that end will be efforts you will be glad to have made.